Kilka uwag w przedmiocie projektu nowelizacji ustawy o ochronie prawnej odmian roślin

The institution of agricultural exemption is the most significant economic importance from all limitations to the exclusive right to the plant varieties. The agricultural exemption shall mean the derogation from the assumed protection model of plant variety rights, the objective of which is to defend the interests of farmers. Protecting the interests of farmers within the institution concerned is provided through their entitlement to benefit from the material harvested from plant varieties protected by the exclusive right as the seed without the breeder’s consent. So far-restricting protection of the exclusive right to the variety may lead to disintegration of the referred right, unless the legislator ensures the breeders legal instruments to offset their legitimate interests. Both at the Community and the national level such instruments shall be the entitlement to collect a fee for the agricultural exemption, the entitlement of the breeder to demand the information on a scope of the use of the institution of agricultural exemption, as well as the entitlement to check the compliance of the obtained information with the actual data. The latest draft amendment to the plant variety protection act fails to satisfy the principle to balance interests of the parties for obligatory relations of the agricultural exemption. In Poland its potential adoption and coming into force may be the essential factor which shall make the protection of the exclusive right regarding plant varieties at national level illusory.